Related papers: Essential meridional surfaces for tunnel number on…
We discuss an "extrinsic" property of knots in a 3-subspace of the 3-sphere $S^3$ to characterize how the subspace is embedded in $S^3$. Specifically, we show that every knot in a subspace of the 3-sphere is transient if and only if the…
Tilings of a surface of negative Euler characteristic by n-gons with n\ge 7 is a finite problem. One extreme of the finite problem is single tile tilings. We develop the algorithm for finding all the single tile tilings and present the…
If the tunnel number of a link $K$ is denoted $t(K)$, a pair of knots $K_1,K_2$ is said to be subadditive if $t(K_1)+t(K_2)>t(K_1 # K_2)$. We construct new examples of subadditive links.
This paper continues a program due to Motegi regarding universal bounds for the number of non-isotopic essential $n$-punctured tori in the complement of a hyperbolic knot in $S^3$. For $n=1$, Valdez-S\'anchez showed that there are at most…
We have a knot quandle and a fundamental class as invariants for a surface-knot. These invariants can be defined for a classical knot in a similar way, and it is known that the pair of them is a complete invariant for classical knots. In…
It is known that any surface knot can be transformed to an unknotted surface knot or a surface knot which has a diagram with no triple points by a finite number of 1-handle additions. The minimum number of such 1-handles is called the…
Let $N$ be a compact, connected, nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components. Let $\mathcal{C}(N)$ be the curve complex of $N$. We prove that if $(g,n) = (3,0)$ or $g + n \geq 5$, then there is an exhaustion of…
The powerful character variety techniques of Culler and Shalen can be used to find essential surfaces in knot manifolds. We show that module structures on the coordinate ring of the character variety can be used to identify detected…
This purpose of this paper is to prove the following result: let phi be a strictly convex, smooth, convex body in the Euclidean plane, if the intersection of n translates of phi has a non-empty interior, and all of the translates contribute…
An increasing sequence of integers is said to be universal for knots and links if every knot and link has a projection to the sphere such that the number of edges of each complementary face of the projection comes from the given sequence.…
The twisted torus knots K(p, q; r, s) are obtained by performing a sequence of s full twists on r adjacent strands of (p, q)-torus knots. Morimoto asked whether all twisted torus knots with essential tori in the exterior fit into one of two…
A closed totally geodesic surface in the figure eight knot complement remains incompressible in all but finitely many Dehn fillings. In this paper, we show that there is no universal upper bound on the number of such fillings, independent…
We show an infinite family of hyperbolic knots that have an exceptional surgery producing a graph manifold containing five disjoint, and non parallel incompressible tori.
For a positive integer $n\ge 3$, the collection of $n$-sided polygons embedded in $3$-space defines the space of geometric knots. We will consider the subspace of equilateral knots, consisting of embedded $n$-sided polygons with unit length…
We prove that any link admitting a diagram with a single negative crossing is strongly quasipositive. This answers a question of Stoimenow's in the (strong) positive. As a second main result, we give simple and complete characterizations of…
Whitehead doubles provide a plethora of examples of knots that are topologically slice but not smoothly slice. We discuss the problem of the Whitehead double of the Figure 8 knot and survey commonly used techniques to obstructing sliceness.…
We introduce a monoid corresponding to knotted surfaces in four space, from its hyperbolic splitting represented by marked diagram in braid like form. It has four types of generators: two standard braid generators and two of singular type.…
For $g>0$, we construct $g+1$ Legendrian embeddings of a surface of genus $g$ into $J^1(R^2)=R^5$ which lie in pairwise distinct Legendrian isotopy classes and which all have $g+1$ transverse Reeb chords ($g+1$ is the conjecturally minimal…
For each $1\leq n\leq6$ we present formulas for the number of $n-$nodal curves in an $n-$dimensional linear system on a smooth, projective surface. This yields in particular the numbers of rational curves in the system of hyperplane…
A surface-link is a closed surface embedded in the 4-space, possibly disconnected or non-orientable. Every surface-link can be presented by the plat closure of a braided surface, which we call a plat form presentation. The knot symmetric…